Telling the truth about SME life today

Business Technology

Five ways your apps are putting you at risk

The way that we use apps means that they make for a relatively easy hack for cyber criminals. Users often have a lax approach to online hygiene – using the same password for multiple accounts, without two factor authentication.

At the same time, accidents happen, with users accidentally clicking links they shouldn’t or uploading the wrong files to the wrong place. In order to protect the company, businesses need to know what the risks are to then put solutions in place to mitigate them.

(1) Smart people do stupid things

File permissions are hard! It’s really tough to make sure that files are set-up so that people only have as much access as they need to get their jobs done. Now with so many cloud apps, there are more and more file permissions to manage. As a result, the most common reason for data being leaked is errors on the part of employees.

The email avalanche generally means that most business users send and receive more than 120 emails per day. Every cloud app we sign up for only increases the load and, as a result, spotting a dodgy email is harder than ever

It just takes one person in the company to click a bad link and end up sharing their credentials with a criminal, giving them access to the system.

Continue on the next page for the three remaining areas of risk you should be aware of.

Telling the truth about SME life today

Real Business has championed entrepreneurship in the UK since 1997. It is now the main source of inspiration, education, and collaboration for the owners of fast-growing businesses, from startups to mid-market companies. Real Business provides readers with high profile interviews, news, insight and industry benchmark reports, as well as a growing stable of events tailored to SME growth.